The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Venezuela Should Come Clean on Iran

by Michael Rubin When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died in June 1989, there was a brutal heat wave in Tehran. Iranian forces sprayed the crowds
who took to the streets with water to prevent heat stroke. The quip on
the streets of Tehran at the time was “the old man was so senile, he
forgot to close the door on the way down.” With the passing of
Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, Khomeini surely has company.

The relationship between Chavez and the Islamic Republic of Iran was
too often dismissed in policy circles. Some in the State Department
approached it almost as an amusing curiosity, while on the right it
became exhibit A in the strange confluence of radical Islamism and
unrestrained leftism.

There was much more to the relationship
than rhetorical solidarity. Give credit where credit is due: Roger
Noriega, a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American
States, has established a record of accuracy when utilizing insider
sources to report on Chavez’s health. He was given accurate diagnoses
when the State Department was accepting their own interlocutors, who
were supplying far more optimistic accounts of Chavez’s health, going
back years.

Roger has also been at the forefront of reporting on the Iranian-Venezuelan military and nuclear cooperation. Just over a year ago, Roger described “Iran’s Gambit in Latin America” in COMMENTARY. He also described the curious interaction of Venezuela and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in The American:

According to reliable sources in the
Venezuelan government, Iranian Major General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the
Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace commander who previously headed
Iran’s missile program, visited the facilities in Maracay and Moran in
July 2009 and November 2011. An independent source who infiltrated
Hezbollah on behalf of a South American security agency attended several
lectures from 2006 to 2008 at the Iranian-run petrochemical training
facility by radical cleric Mohsen Rabbani, who is wanted by Interpol for
his role in the 1992 and 1994 terrorist bombings against the Israeli
Embassy and Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

Now that Chavez is gone, it should be a priority for the Obama
administration and Secretary of State John Kerry to push to see just
what Iran and Chavez were up to. Russia, China, and Turkey always water
down or undercut sanctions by arguing there is no proof that Iran has
nefarious intentions. That proof may very well lay in Venezuela. Then
again, perhaps Obama and Kerry would be just as happy as Putin and
Erdoğan to see no proof emerge. In that case, their best strategy might
simply be not to look. If it’s a choice between being proven wrong on
their strategy of outreach and protecting U.S. national security, let’s
hope that Obama and Kerry put country before pride.